Tag Archives: tatuaje

March 8, 2026 · 10:24 am

Tatuaje Cojonu 2015, El Pulpo and 601 La Bomba Warhead Cigars

I love Daylight Saving Time, I just don’t like the change. I feel like I’m an hour behind today. I guess when you read this, it’ll be an hour later than usual. Anyway, I smoked three cigars that were new to me, or that I haven’t had in a long time. As I get older, I invest less time in smoking new cigars, I know, it’s not what “cigar media” is all about, but from the start this site was a journal of my cigar adventures. I will continue to seek out new or new-t0-me cigars and present my thoughts every Sunday. The first of which this week is a from a five pack I practically stole from a Smoke Inn deal, a Tatuaje Cojonu 2015, a 5″ x 55 robusto extra. I can’t remember not enjoying a Tatuaje Cojonu, so this was a $20 I had to spend. I don’t smoke enough Tatuajes and I really would like to. This cigar is made at the My Father factory in Nicaragua, has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binders and fillers. I think this is an exceptional cigar. I saw reviews with all kinds of flavors, I just thought it was delicious tobacco, maybe with some pepper to start and earthiness. I should have bought more, and the next time I visit Cigar Mojo near me I’ll grab some more Cojonus, they have a good selection of Tatuaje cigars. I get e-mails from Smoke Inn with these ridiculous specials all the time, would you like me to post them to the CigarCraig Facebook page? I can’t get the affiliate program to work, so I’m not profiting off it or anything, it would be a public service. Let me know what you think in the comments.

I stopped in my local CigarCigars shop last week and grabbed a few cigars, one of which was the Artesano Del Tobacco El Pulpo Toro Grande. This is another brand I’m late to the party on. I have only smoked a few of their Viva la Vida line, and this is the first I’ve seen the El Pulpo in the wild. Since changing owners, the selection at this store has improved greatly, and I can only assume the other stores have followed suit. These are made and (I think) distributed by A.J. Fernandez, and owned by the brothers who owned the Cigar Inn in NYC, which is now a Casa de Montecristo. Oddly, looking back thought my Facebook memories today, I see that 12 years ago I smoked on of their Cigar Inn house brands, the NYC Brooklyn that I had picked up on a visit there that year. Anyway, this El Pulpo was right up my alley. It has a San Andrés wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and fillers from A.J. Fernandez’ farms, made at the San Lotano factory in Ocatel, a bit north of Esteli. My initial thought is why are these in boxes of ten, when eight would make more sense, given that El Pulpo is Spanish for octopus? I got past that quickly. I liked this cigar a lot. It wasn’t your every day San Andrés maduro cigar, it had an interesting barbecue flavor off, smokey and woody, I also got some black coffee with a little spicy zing. Worth a try, and they have some really interesting shapes in this line I’d like to find, including a culebra.

Another cigar I picked up at CigarCigars was the Espinosa 601 La Bomba Warhead 11 LE 2025. The bomb shaped can that they are packaged in was on a high shelf and I almost missed it. I’ve long been a fan of the La Bomba line, going back to the EO Brands days when it was released. The Warhead series has also been a hit for me. This one is presented in a 6¾″ x 54 oval-shaped Figurado, and the band position screws with my CDO (which, of course, is OCD in alphabetical order, LIKE IT SHOULD BE!). I expect La Bomba bands to be on the foot, but this shape is confusing to my eye! I can imagine someone who is less obsessed with cigars lighting the wrong end of this, like you see people smoking Short Stories backwards., or leaving the cedar sleeve on…anyway, this is another cigar that is right up my alley. It is a puro, with a Nicaraguan Broadleaf wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. Like the El Pulpo, it’s also made at the San Lotano factory. As one would expect by the name, this has an explosion of flavors, some espresso, some cinnamon, maybe some dark fruit. All three cigars mentioned here burned perfectly, I was very fortunate. This might be my new favorite Warhead, but I really like the 7 a lot. Packaging and presentation are amazing on this line.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 601, 601 La Bomba, Artesano Del Tobacco, cigar, cigars, Cojonu, Cojonu 2015, El Pulpo, tatuaje, Warhead

January 11, 2026 · 9:47 am

Crowned Heads, Sinistro and Tatuaje Cigars

The new year is off to a start, and I’m still managing to find new-to-me cigars to smoke. Over the last couple weeks I’ve stopped in to a few local shops and bought cigars. Now I’m forgetting where I got what! One of the cigars I picked up was a Crowned Heads Coroneta Maduro Baron, their 6″ x 56 toro. This cigar is made at Casa Carrillo by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, uses a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper over a Ecuadorian Connecticut binder, and Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Pennsylvania fillers. It’s a diverse blend for sure, and it’s not uncommon to see Ecuador Connecticut over a San Andrés binder, but vice versa is a little unique. This cigar came out in May of 2024, so I guess I’m not that far behind. I have an affinity for Carrillo cigars, have since the old La Gloria days, and this was no different. I was a little disappointed in the aesthetics, the cap was pretty sloppily applied, but it made no difference in the burn and draw, which were perfect. It had some dry cocoa and a nice depth of flavor, very satisfying. The band annoyed me, the pointy part hit my lip so I took it off. I hope this is one that they are rebranding. It seems I keep finding Crowned Heads cigars that I’ve overlooked, maybe because I was turned off to them early in the game and I just haven’t paid much attention to them. A few discussions I’ve had with Miguel Schoedel have made me take a second look.

I was surprised to find some Sinistro cigars in one of the shops I visited last week, which has more of a traditional selection. I picked up a Sinistro The Last Barbarian to give a try. Naturally, I got the Toro, which is 6″ x 54, why wouldn’t I? This has a Dominican Maduro wrapper, Cameroon binder and a Ligero heavy filler blend including Dominican, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania Ligeros and a Nicaraguan Seco. These are made at the El Artista factory. I met the Sinistro guys at the Smoke-onos event last year, and I’ve known the folks at El Artista for a long time. I’m going to make an effort to smoke more of their stuff. This one was really good, right up my alley. It started chocolaty with some spice. It was very rich, and well behaved and not as strong as one might expect given the amount of high priming leaf in the blend. This is a winner, and I seem to remember it wasn’t stupidly priced.

Yesterday we painted our family room, one wall of which extended into the kitchen and dining room. Lots of moving stuff around, taping, painting and cleaning up. I really don’t like painting. It looks really good now though and needed to be done. While waiting for the walls to dry so we could put things back, I took a break with a cigar. I chose a 4½” x 60 Tatuaje Sextooth William Blake. This is a strange name for a cigar. It’s named after a track on musician Andreas “Sextooth” Contogouris EP Smoking Mirror. The Sextooth line consists of four sizes which are all priced in the $5.50 – $8.50 range, made at the My Father factory. They have an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. I don’t know what a “Sextooth” is, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little guy. It had kind of a caramel sweetness, and no issues with the burn and draw. This is a line I will be further exploring.

I still have to get Ron’s winnings shipped, I’ve been carefully curating a selection of cigars for him. I hope it makes it out in tomorrow’s UPS. I should have gotten it out last week, but I’ve been a slug. It’ll be worth the wait, I think. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Baron, Coroneta, Crowned Heads, E.P. Carrillo, Sextooth, Sinistro, Smoking Mirror, tatuaje, The Last Barbarian, William Blake

December 21, 2025 · 9:43 am

Tatuaje, Knuckle Sandwich and a Don Emmanuel Cigar

Happy Winter Solstice! While I generally don’t like that today is the shortest day of the year, it gives me hope that for the foreseeable future the days will be getting longer! I prefer sunlight to darkness. Anyway, its uphill from here! Perhaps I have seasonal defective disorder or something. Anyway, I still smoke cigars, thank goodness for electricity! This week some of my “new to me” cigars aren’t really new, but this time of year one can’t be picky. I’ll start with the Tatuaje Avion 12, the smallest size in the Avion line, 5 5/8″ x 52, a cute little perfecto by today’s standards! I know I’ve smoked the Avion 13, which has a broadleaf wrapper instead of the Ecuador Habano that this and it’s larger sibling, the 11 has. The Habano surrounds Nicaraguan binder and filler. Something makes me think the Avion is an offshoot of the Fausto line, but in perfecto shapes. I like the shape, and I believe these are reasonably priced. That this cigar has been on the market for 13 years and this is my first go around with it is a failing on my part. There’s a sweet, dark fruit flavor I get, and it’s a fairly loose draw so I take care not to oversmoke it. I think it’s a really good $9 cigar.

Another cigar I smoked this week is a Knuckle Sandwich Maduro Robusto. This is a cigar that Espinosa Cigars makes for Guy Fieri, the TV cook dude. This is the most successful celebrity cigar todate, with Guy actually doing events to support it. This guy (can you call guys named Guy guy?), is a super busy guy, who recently injured himself requiring surgery, and still makes it to events. It’s good for cigars to have a celebrity, who nearly everyone with a TV knows, show cigars in a positive light. OK, the core line Knuckle Sandwich Maduro uses a Sumatra wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. While it’s different from the Red Meat Lovers cigars, it’s definitely in the top two of culinary themed cigars. There’s rich cocoa and nutty flavors and I like it a lot. I can’t remember where I got this, it might have been in one of those Smoke Inn samplers I keep buying for n0 apparent reason. I really like these Knuckle Sandwich cigars, there’s a whole bunch of Limited Edition cigars in this line I haven’t tried, and probably won’t. I’m sure they are good, I just never seem to see them.

Gabe Piñeres, PR guy to the stars, send me a flight of the Don Emmanuel cigars, Toro, Robusto and petite corona to sample. These cigars are blended by Eladio Diaz, who was the blender for Davidoff for many years. The “about” page on the website says that Don Emmanuel is a cigar sommelier, apparently world renowned, who I haven’t heard of. Eladio Diaz I’ve heard of. I could do some digging if I wanted to. They debuted at this year’s PCA show, and have one line so far, the Don Emmanuel Annunaki, a name which appeals to my affinity for the Ancient Aliens show. If there’s a TV celebrity more well known that Guy Fieri, it has to be Giorgio Tsoukalos, right? OK, he’s a nut who’s made a name for himself, I get it, I should be so lucky. The Anu (which I believe is some sort of fertility god in the Sumerian lore) is the toro, which I smoked. The wrapper is Dominican with a Mexican binder and Dominican fillers.It’s a interesting flavor profile. I want to say cedary, with some bitter flavors. Maybe there’s something mushroomy in there, but that could be a preconceived notion. These are flavors that don’t line up with my preferences, but they do for others. No complaints on the construction, it was well behaved. It’s a $16 cigar, not terribly by today’s standard, and it worth a try if you like cigars that I don’t! Not saying it’s a bad cigar, just not one for me (it happens! ask Lee Marsh of Stolen Throne). Maybe I’ll like the robusto and petite better.

The next few weeks have Christmas and New Years falling in them, so please temper your expectations for the next few Sunday posts. Not that any of them are spectacular, but maybe the next few will be shorter, ’tis the season. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Saturnalia, etc, to those who celebrate. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Anu, Anunnaki, Avion, Avion 12, cigar, cigars, Don Emmanuel, Espinosa, Guy Fieri, Knuckle Sandwich, tatuaje

November 2, 2025 · 8:58 am

New Cohiba Rubicon, Tatuaje Mummy and JFR 20th Anniversary Cigars

This may not be as wordy as usual, for some reason I cant seem to think of a lot to say about the three cigars I smoked for this week’s blog post. Let’s just jump right in to the first one. General Cigar Co. is very generous with samples, something I appreciate very much. I’ve had a good relationship with them since 2010, although there’s only a few people left there that I know anymore. they share a lot of Cohibas with me, many of which I wouldn’t buy because they are priced over my personal spending limit. You will rarely see me spending more than $15 on a cigar. Frugal to some, cheap to others, but I’ve come a long way from the days I was hard pressed to spend $8. The newest Cohiba is the Rubicon, made at the HATSA factory in Honduras and all three vitolas are under $10. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, U.S. Broadleaf binder, and Dominican, Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. Sounds like it should be good, right? It’s better than the Cohiba Blue, and not a bad cigar. It started with a citric acid bite, which calmed down pretty quickly, and turned out to be a pretty nice smoke. No real flavors jumped out at me, it was just a pretty good cigar. I feel like Cohiba should stick to the luxury space, and leave the budget offerings to the myriad of other lines in the portfolio. I love the Riviera, although I’m picking the $15 lancero over the $20 robusto just based on price, and several of the other cigars in the line are good. Take the Spectre out of the equation because it’s so expensive, but really very good. I’m not sure why the Rubicon was needed. Do they still make the Blue? They shouldn’t.

Friday was Halloween, and for the last 30 years I’ve been smoking a cigar while handing out candy (the first few years I smoked a cigar while taking my kids out). I always put the cigar in the ashtray when I see kids coming. Nick did a nice piece on this topic on a Cigar Pulpit episode last week. I did the cliché thing and smoked a Tatuaje Mummy Redux 5 this year. Back when Pete Johnson started tis series, $13 was a pricey cigar, now it’s practically reasonable. I wonder if the quality is going to go down in the future, or if rising prices are going to make him end this tradition? This cigar is 7½” x 47, so a little longer than a Churchill. I like the size, especially when I have two hours to kill! This cigar lasted closer to two and a half hours! The Mummy Redux has a Nicaraguan Criollo and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I am typically not a Criollo fan, which explains why my first impression was something along the lines of “what am I tasting here?”. There was some very subtle sugar cane sweetness, and good, light tobacco flavors. I really quite enjoyed the cigar, and if I see more I might pick a couple up. It was a little confusing to me though, as it wasn’t really like any other Tatuaje cigar I’ve had, it was on the verge of mild. Full disclosure, I really haven’t smoked too many of the Monster Series, and I don’t smoke as many Tatuaje cigars as I’d like.

Like the Tatuaje, the JFR 20th Anniversary Super Toro is a cigar I picked up on one of my recent forays to the Wooden Indian. I had been wanting to try this one. I’m about 50/50 on cigars I like from Aganorsa, and the JFR line is usually one I like. I can’t believe these have been around for twenty years. I think I remember when they came out, pushing the Just For Retailers thing, which I tink means for the brick and mortar retailers, but really anyone selling cigars is a retailer, right? Am I not supposed to smoke this because I’m not a retailer? Am I being too picky? Asking too many questions? The JFR like is generally a budget friendly line, with a lot of larger ring cigars. The 20th Anniversary has a pigtail cap, a closed foot, and is box pressed, they stopped short of putting a figurado in the range. I picked the Super Toro because I like toros and a super one has to be pretty great. I also wasn’t prepared for a 70 ring cigar, of which they offer two in this line. It’s box pressed, might not be horrible. This has a San Andrés wrapper over Aganorsa grown Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. Other than the burn meandering a little, it was quite enjoyable. It had some interting baking spices, while I was expecting more of an earthy, chocolaty profile. I put this down to go inside to watch the first period of the Flyers game, and finished up between periods. I liked it, might go back and try one of the obnoxiously large sizes for kicks.

I managed to be more verbose than I thought! That’s all I have to today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 20th Anniversary, Aganorsa, cigar, cigars, cohiba, JFR, Mummy, Redux, Rubicon, tatuaje

October 26, 2025 · 10:16 am

Crowned Heads Broadway, Tatuaje Corojo T110 and AJ Fernandez Decenio Cigars

I had occasion on Wednesday to hang out at the Wooden Indian in Havertown, so, of course, I bought some more cigars to smoke. I don’t smoke a lot of Crowned Heads cigars, I like Miguel there a lot, and do actually like a lot of their cigars. Jon has always been cordial to me, but one time he blew me off at a trade show left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t think I ever made that public. Anyway, the Broadway line intrigued me, so I picked one up and smoked it there in the Wooden Indian’s Liga Privada Lounge. Of course, I smoked the toro, which is 6½” x 54. This cigar has a beautiful, oily broadleaf wrapper, over a Jalapa binder and fillers from Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe, Nicaragua. It’s made at NACSA, which is where Saka makes Mi Querida, Umbagog, and the Red Meat Lovers Club cigars. This factory has a steady supply of Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. My expectations were exceeded, as this cigar was absolutely delicious. I may like this more that the Mi Querida Blue, which I like a great deal. Construction was perfect, the flavors were smooth, rich cocoa and coffee, right up my alley. my only regret is that I only bought one, and I considered picking up a few more before the shop closed. I want to thank Dave at the Wooden Indian for letting me hang out in the members lounge after the shop closed, I very much appreciate it! By the way, the Crowned Heads website is in dire need of updating.

The Tatuaje T110 Corojo is a 4 3/8″ x 52 short robusto with a Corojo wrapper. I smoked the Cohete (4″ x 50) back in August and really liked it, so I was very much looking forward to this one. I have smoked the T110 in the Broadleaf and Tuxtla wrappers and enjoyed them. This one I didn’t care for, and there aren’t many Tatuaje cigars I don’t like. It started out with a sourness, and skirted the line between sweet and sour through out the whole smoke. It was disappointing, but I always look at situations like this as a learning experience, what do I like in a cigar and what don’t I like, and how can I avoid it in the future? It’s money well spent, as long as I remember what I don’t like and don’t spend money on it again? This one had been in the humidor for a a couple months.

Another cigar I selected from the vast humidor of the Wooden Indian was the A.J. Fernandez New World Decenio in the toro size. This cigar commemorates a decade of the New World line, and made in the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua. I was hoping to pick one of these up a week or so ago when I saw Laurel at another nearby shop, but I either didn’t see them, or they didn’t have them. They had a really expensive 20th anniversary cigar, which may have distracted me (I didn’t bite). I adore the New World Dorado, and the rest of the New World line are really very good. This cigar is 6½” x 54 with a box press that makes it seem thinner. It has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos from Honduras and Nicaragua. I expected a good smoke, and I got a good smoke. This started out spicy, no surprise there, really. It moved to sweet, dark coffee, which is a combination I really like. I also really like that bonus half inch on a toro, more of a good thing. This was a really good smoke, and, dare I say, worth the $14 I paid. This is another anniversary cigar for a budget brand that is higher in price, like the Rocky Patel Edge and the Foundation Charter Oak.

My name was mentioned on yesterday’s Cigar Authority show which was about the cigar inventors. I’ve been on the show a couple times and I’ve known these guys for a long time. It’s humbling to be mentioned, and it gives me some credibility, I guess, to be recognized by them, but I want to set a couple things straight. I, in no way, created anything or was the first of anything. When I started this there were a lot of cigar blogs, I just happened to have outlasted a lot of them. Certainly Stogie Review (which is making a comeback with the Smoke & Steel podcast) was one of the first, and Casas Fumando has stood the test of time. I take some pride in being mentioned by my peers (I got a nice mention by Kevin on a recent El Oso Fumar show too, TY). I’m still just a guy who writes stuff about cigars.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig